Telepresence: Ready for its close-up

GOING GREEN SAVES GREEN

The promise of telepresence technology has the communications industry seeing green in more ways than one.

Of course, vendors and network operators are excited to see the greenbacks pouring in from the sale of bandwidth-intensive systems that cost upwards of a quarter-million dollars per location. But technology providers and their customers also are seeing a more altruistic shade of green: Telepresence technology can help companies save millions on travel, which translates to a worldwide reduction in carbon emissions.

Cisco Systems is not only selling telepresence systems, it's using them. In 2007, the company saved $70 million on travel-related expenses using telepresence, says Marthin De Beer, senior vice president of the company's emerging technology group. Cisco realized that savings despite the fact that it had to upgrade a big portion of its network backbone to OC-12.

“For us telepresence has had a nine- to 12-month [return on investment] per room,” De Beer said. “That wouldn't have happened if we didn't see the kind of utilization we've seen. But this is making Cisco more green; it's using the network as a platform for communications, and it's making people a lot more productive.”

Robin Gareiss, executive vice president and senior founding partner of Nemertes Research, an independent research firm that specializes in quantifying the business impact of technology, said some of her clients are seeing huge returns from implementing telepresence, even at a steeper price tag. “When telepresence first came out, a large financial services company we were working with installed 10 rooms at $500,000 each,” Gareiss said. “They were able to see an ROI of less than a year just based on how much money their executive team was spending traveling globally.”

Several vendors and some service providers have begun providing carbon footprint calculators to help customers figure out how much their travel savings can mean in terms of a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Videoconferencing vendor Tandberg sponsors a Web site at www.seegreennow.com that offers such a calculator and outlines ideas for how to reduce emissions.

“Two years ago in the U.S., ‘green’ wasn't a discussion point,” said Rick Snyder, president of the Americas for Tandberg. “Today for any major U.S. company, green is a top-five concern in choosing products.”

Some European countries have enacted strict carbon-emission regulations, so the idea of using technology to reduce the carbon footprint there isn't new. Many companies now participate in carbon reduction networks, which allow them to “sell” their carbon savings to companies that need to post reductions.

BT has begun a consulting practice devoted to helping companies determine how they can reduce carbon emissions through a variety of measures, including using conferencing services and reducing energy consumption in data centers. The telco has reduced its own carbon emissions in the U.K. by 60% since 1996, said Kevin Moss, head of corporate responsibility operations for BT. “We feel very strongly that the carbon footprint reduction we've achieved has been important for improving shareholder stakes as well,” Moss said. 

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